British Gas cuts gas prices by 10%, after you really needed it

A phrase involving cart and horse arrangment is probably appropriate to describe it; from February 19th - a month before Spring starts and we all start using our central heating less, British Gas is to cut gas prices by 10 per cent.

British Gas claim the move will benefit more than 7.5 million homes and cut £84 from the average annual gas bill, with average bills falling to below £800 a year. 10 per cent is a modest cut, but it hardly makes up for the company ramping up bills by a third last summer.

So why couldn't British Gas have cut the prices sooner, such has before that nasty blast of Siberian weather when we all had to wear five jumpers and have the boiler chugging all day long? In their own words:

British Gas buys its gas supplies in advance to make sure it always has enough for its customers. As a result, much of the gas people are using this winter was bought in summer 2008 when wholesale gas prices were at record high levels - almost 90 per cent higher than the winter before. British Gas worked to keep its prices as competitive as possible and did not pass on this cost in full to its customers.

Expect other energy suppliers to follow suit, and the inevitable merry-go-round of being begged to swap suppliers and tariffs and blah.

15 comments

Well done BG, looks like they've been reading BW for tips on how to blagg customers, double the prices, then reduce them by 10% and tell everyone how kind you are. I'm sure they made enough profit to cover the 10% drop. freakin winkers!
BG sucks, Mike Hock

you are forgetting that the queen is a pensioner !
on the issue of gas, from BG's comments we should see further steep reductions in prices as we seem to be lagging 6-8 months behind. By the time we get to summer we should all be able to heat ourselves properly.

Thanks British Gas, been freezing my ass off. Which reminds me, I owe you £7.50 for the gas i've used over the last 20 months! I don't mind wearing three layers of clothes but it's kinda unfair when guests are round.

Hi,
My name is Sam, I am the CEO for Centrica, (the group BG is part of dumb ass) I make shit loads of money and i expect to get a raise of £1.5m this year as well as loads of other benefits you numptys can only dream of.
You bunch of idiots are paying my extortionately high salary, so for that I thank you, but I needed an Island what like Mr Branson has got, so I put up prices in the summer to afford it. To make it look like BG are great, I have discounted rates by 10% but really they're still 40% higher, just makes me look nice.
I keep harping on about we need to make massive profits to enable us to resource cheaper gas and other crap I don't really understand or give a shit about, when in reality, I just want loads of shit I don't really need.
I don't need to put the heating on cos I live in a massive house in a nice warm country unlike most of you fuckwits.
Thanks for keeping me in yachts, turn the heating up, and remember to leave the oven on (as long as it's gas that is)
Toodles
Sam

The problem is that the older more vulnerable pensioners don't understand that they have a choice and can move away from British Gas if they want to, it's not us youngsters with our Internet and stuff that are giving BG all their money.

[...] to turn, you’ll be paying less for your heating bill. First it was British Gas who announced price cuts of 10 per cent that begin in a fortnight, and now Scottish and Southern Energy has said it will cut prices for [...]